Vietnam-songkhla vietnamese refugee camp in thailand?

Question

does anybody know anything about songkhla refugee camp? my family and i were boat people that fled after the fall of saigon in '78. we stayed at this camp for 18 months before coming to america. i'm trying to find as many info about this camp as possible and would absolutely appreciate the help. thanks in advance.

-is it still around?

-i like to see pictures of this camp.

-did they take id photos of all their refugees at this camp? if yes then how can i obtain a copy?

-how big was this camp?

-what was in this camp besides shelter? ex:was there any stores, bathroom facilities, etc.

-anybody have pictures of your stayed at this camp?

1 second ago - 3 days left to answer.

Answer 1

My sisters and I were there in 1983 for less than a month.  It was a transfer point so there was not much going on but waiting.  There was a little catholic church ran by Father John,  a little Buddha temple ran by one monk, a little store that sale snacks.....Since people were not there long enough to be settle in, there was no way of taking pictures....all I have was the memories of it.......long beaches.....lot of uncertainties........some good friends....and some bad people.....Oh, well, it's only a memory now.

Answer 2

http://www.searescue.org/SEA_page_2.htm

This is a long article, but at the end it has some pictures of Songkhla.

http://us.share.geocities.com/dangdthanh...

You might want to search for books written about the refugee lives in Songkhla. I searched but found nothing. You might be lucky.  

Good luck.

Answer 3

The camp in Songkhla for VN refugees was closed in May 1986, 10 years after it was opened.

Voluntary agencies such as the United States Catholic Conference, the International Rescue Committee, and Church World Service arranged sponsorships for the refugees and took care of their initial needs upon arriving in the United States.

For info, you can try to contact

http://www.searescue.org/index.html

http://www.coerr.org/

http://www.unhcr.org

or the US Congress (House Committee on Foreign Affairs; Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs) or the

http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/orr/dat...

More info:

http://www.lib.uci.edu/libraries/collect...

http://us.share.geocities.com/dangdthanh...

The latter includes graphic descriptions of how badly the "boat people" were treated by the neighboring countries.

http://www.lib.uci.edu/libraries/collect...

http://www.hhh.umn.edu/img/assets/24592/...

Answer 4

Perhaps they dissolved the camp after all of the refugees left. Like most other camps, they're just an island that the US rented to keep the refugees before sending them to other countries. I know that I used to stay in Tanjung Pinang in Indonesia for 4 months. It was horrible. That to show because of freedom, Vietnamese people had to leave our homeland to stay in such a bad condition.

Hope your family is doing well . Mine moved on and thank goodness for our determination, we're doing quite well considering what we had to go through.